Bill Would Put Wind Farm Authority in State Hands
State Sen. John Sullivan has introduced a bill to transfer responsibility for siting and regulating wind turbines from counties to states. Local governments would be able to conduct public hearings on proposed wind farms, but the state Department of Agriculture would handle all permitting and other processes.
Sullivan wants to eliminate inconsistency in requirements and in county resources to handle the facility proposals.
Counties object to the idea, as does the wind power industry. Wind on the Wires Public Policy Manager Erick Borgia noted that similar legislation has been introduced, unsuccessfully, in the past.
More: National Wind Watch
500 kW Solar Farm is First For a Cooperative in State
Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative christened its four-acre, 500 kW solar facility south of Winchester – the first utility-scale photovoltaic solar energy system for a co-op in the state. The $1.8 million installation was helped by a $416,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program and a $500,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Renewable Energy Business Development Program.
“We couldn’t have undertaken this project without federal and state assistance,” co-op President Robert Brown said.
More: The Telegraph
Constellation Wins Deal To Supply Suburban Group
Constellation, Exelon’s retail arm, has won a three-year power supply contract for a large suburban Chicago municipal consortium, a group of seven led by the villages of Buffalo Grove and Arlington Heights. The arrangement involves 95,000 households and small businesses.
The deal, to provide power at 6.5 cents/kWh, is expected to beat Commonwealth Edison’s default price, which is to rise in June from the current 6.02 cents to more than 7 cents. ComEd is an Exelon company as well.
Not every community in the consortium has the same rate or arrangements. Arlington Heights rates, for example, will be 6.62 cents/kWh, because its supply is green energy.
More: Line-Man.com; Chicago Tribune
Batavia Executes Rate Hike Attributable to Prairie State
Burdened like a number of other communities by the $5 billion cost of the Prairie State Energy Campus, the Batavia City Council voted to raise its sales tax by 0.5% and its residential electricity rates 6.5% in both 2014 and 2015, with a $4 increase in the monthly customer charge. Different increases will apply to commercial and industrial customers. The council agreed to add a provision that would sunset the sales tax increase in three years.
The troubled coal plant saw its construction costs double, from $2.5 billion to $5 billion, because of design changes and construction overruns.
More: Chicago Tribune
INDIANA
Court Upholds Decision On Edwardsport Rates
The state Court of Appeals affirmed utility regulators’ 2012 decision to raise electricity rates 16% to pay for Duke Energy’s $3.5 billion Edwardsport coal gasification plant. Citizen and environmental groups challenged the Utility Regulatory Commission’s decision, citing huge cost overruns, and questioned the quality of regulatory oversight.
The court acknowledged the plant suffered the cost overruns but said the URC took that into account. The Citizens Action Coalition said it might appeal the ruling.
More: Indianapolis Star
Pence Pressed For, Against Ending Efficiency Program
Honeywell and Ingersoll Rand, companies with energy-efficiency business interests, have joined environmental groups in urging Gov. Mike Pence to veto a bill that would kill the state’s Energizing Indiana program. Pence has until March 27 to decide whether to sign the bill, which would defund the program at the end of the year.
The Indiana Manufacturers Association initiated efforts for the bill, arguing the program costs business too much with little return. The Indiana Energy Association, a utility group, did not instigate the bill but says it supports it.
More: Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Midwest Energy News
Proposal for 5 MW Wind Farm Eyed in Monroe
Solar Zentrum has proposed a 5 MW solar farm on land owned by Monroe County in southern Indiana. County officials have agreed to move the idea forward. The property is near a power transfer station. Duke Energy Indiana recently published a solicitation for 5 MW of solar.
More: The Elkhart Truth; Duke Energy
KENTUCKY
Enviros to Sue LG&E Over Ash Pond Discharges
The Sierra Club and Earthjustice have filed an intent to sue Louisville Gas & Electric for what they say are Clean Water Act and permit violations at the Mill Creek power plant’s coal ash pond.
Evidence from a hidden camera across the Ohio River from the Louisville facility shows a constant gushing of ash wastewater, not an occasional discharge as the permit allows, according to the groups. A Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesman said the discharge does comply with the permit.
More: LEO Weekly
House Panel OKs Big Sandy Bill Over Ky. Power Protest
A House committee approved legislation to force the Public Service Commission to reconsider its order allowing Kentucky Power to close the Big Sandy coal plant. Kentucky Power, a unit of American Electric Power, would replace its power by buying a half-interest in the Mitchell plant in West Virginia.
Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins supports the measure, as does House Speaker Greg Stumbo. For Adkins and other lawmakers, it is a matter of coal industry jobs, possibly even if keeping Big Sandy open would mean a 30% rate increase to pay for environmental controls. Kentucky Power President Greg Pauley opposed the bill.
More: Daily Independent
MARYLAND
PSC Flooded With Rate Complaints
The Public Service Commission saw a nine-fold increase in complaints about high electric bills in February as the impact of the frigid winter hit customer bills. “We’re averaging about 35 to 40 new complaints a day,” said Obi Linton, who directs the agency’s office of external relations.
Customers with variable-rate contracts got a double whammy. They used more power and discovered just how variable their rates are.
More: The Baltimore Sun
RGGI Elects New Chair And Executive Board
Kelly Speakes-Backman, a member of the Maryland Public Service Commission, is the new chairman of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, succeeding Kenneth Kimmell of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. She and newly elected board members will serve through the end of the year.
More: RGGI
MICHIGAN
DTE 818 MW Solar Plant Will Be Company’s Biggest
The 19th solar power project in southeast Michigan, and DTE’s largest solar project so far at 818 kW, is being assembled near I-96 in Lyons Township. The $3.5 million facility should be finished by May, DTE said. Michigan utilities are required to get 10% of supply from renewables by 2015.
More: Detroit Free Press
NEW JERSEY
BPU Rejects Fishermen’s Energy; Bill is Too High
The state Board of Public Utilities killed the only offshore wind project yet to be considered by the agency, a pilot to build a 25 MW wind farm about three miles off Atlantic City.
Last summer, the board rejected a proposed settlement between Fishermen’s Energy Atlantic City and the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel that would have allowed the project to go forward. The proposal resurfaced during hearings before the agency this winter.
The commissioners questioned the financial viability of the project and agreed with staff that it would be too costly to ratepayers. Clean energy advocates said the decision sends the wrong signal to other offshore developers. New Jersey has a goal of developing 1,100 MW of offshore wind capacity by 2020.
More: NJSpotlight
BPU Approves JCP&L Storm Recovery Cost Settlement
The Board of Public Utilities approved a settlement allowing Jersey Central Power & Light to recover about $736 million from customers to pay for the cost of responding to a series of extreme storms. When those costs — mostly attributable to Superstorm Sandy — will show up on ratepayer bills is still uncertain.
For the utility, the approval of the settlement may cushion the impact of a pending decision in a separate rate case before the agency. Both the BPU staff and the Division of Rate Counsel are seeking to cut the utility’s rates by more than $200 million, a step some say would trim customers’ bills by one-third.
More: NJSpotlight
NORTH CAROLINA
Grand Jury Begins as Duke Ash Pond Issues Proliferate
A federal grand jury was convened to probe the Feb. 2 spill from Duke Energy’s coal ash pond at the Dan River generating station. At least 23 subpoenas were issued in the investigation, which is looking into the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ oversight of the ash ponds.
The DENR reopened the much-criticized settlement it reached last year with Duke over ash ponds near Charlotte and Asheville. Environmentalists had been calling the settlement a sweetheart deal.
As Duke outlined its intentions for dealing with ash ponds throughout the state, the DENR said it would put new conditions into a permit for the company’s Asheville plant.
More: America Now; Carolina Public Press; Los Angeles Times
Review Plan for New Lee Plant, Group Urges NCUC
The citizens group NC WARN wants the North Carolina Utilities Commission to review Duke Energy’s plan for a 750 MW combined cycle plant at its existing Lee site near Anderson, S.C., although the commission lacks explicit jurisdiction to do so. The commission could review it as part of Duke’s integrated resource plan or it could open a separate docket, NC WARN said.
The plant will serve North Carolina customers, but there has been no showing it is needed or the minimum $750 million cost is justified, according to the group.
Duke acknowledged that the NCUC has discretionary authority to review the plan, but noted that the commission would review the costs, anyway, in a future rate case. The company said the plant was necessary to ensure supply as it retires old coal facilities.
More: Power Engineering
OHIO
Cincinnati Deal Allows Green, Fossil Choices
Cincinnati residents will be able to choose between green and fossil fuel power under a compromise between the city manager and council members. Since 2012, the city had purchased 100% of its electricity from non-fossil sources under an aggregation program. But this year the city negotiated a new two-year deal with First Energy Solutions that would obtain power from fossil fuel sources, saving residents $5.63 a year.
That brought pushback from several council members. In response, the city manager said that First Energy would let city residents choose whether they wanted green energy or fossil fuel power. Customers also will be able to opt out of the city’s aggregation purchase entirely.
More: Cincinnati Business Courier
Hearing Moves Davis-Besse Along on License Extension
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public hearing today at Camp Perry on FirstEnergy’s request for a 20-year operating license extension for the Davis-Besse nuclear plant. The hearing will focus on a draft environmental impact statement the NRC released in February.
The EIS is to be finalized by September. The plant’s current 40-year license is to expire April 22, 2017.
More: The Blade
PENNSYLVANIA
PUC Making It Easier For Customers to Switch
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission plans to shorten the time it takes for customers to switch suppliers. The agency has drafted regulations that would require electric distribution companies to complete a customer’s switch in three business days instead of the 11 to 14 days it takes now. The change is in response to nearly 5,000 complaints and 12,000 expressions of concern from customers about this winter’s extreme price increases.
Utilities would be required to implement the changes within six months of the new regulations becoming final. Cost recovery for implementation would be addressed in each utility’s next base rate proceeding.
The PUC also has solicited comments on proposed regulations that will provide customers more detailed electric supplier disclosure statements and more timely information on “contract renewal” and “change in terms” notices.
More: Public Utility Commission; The Morning Call
VIRGINIA
Duke Ash Spill Resonates; Locals Express Confidence
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Duke Energy assured him it would repair any damage to the state from the coal ash pond spill into the Dan River in North Carolina, upriver of Danville, Va. Most activity surrounding the spill has to do with North Carolina, but Danville, whose water supply comes from the river, is across the border.
McAuliffe visited Danville, expressing confidence that its water was safe. Local leaders also declared their water safe, commended Duke for its handling of spill repercussions and said they were tallying their costs for dealing with the ash-contaminated river water for submission to the company.
More: The New York Times; Richmond Times-Dispatch
SCC Approves Rate Adjustment for APCo
The State Corporation Commission approved a request by Appalachian Power Co. to recover $48.6 million in increased costs associated with transmission services provided to the utility, slightly less than the $49.9 million APCo had sought in December.
The Transmission Rate Adjustment Clause will become effective in May, raising the average residential customer bill by about $3.88, or 3.5%.
More: State Corporation Commission
Offshore Wind Project Moves to Public Hearing
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has scheduled an April 3 public hearing as it prepares an environmental assessment for the Virginia Offshore Wind Technology Advancement Project. The project, an effort of the state and Dominion Virginia Power, proposes two 6 MW wind turbines 27 miles offshore from Virginia Beach on platforms designed to withstand hurricane-force winds.
If approved, it would be operational by 2017. The project got $4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.
More: PilotOnline.com
